Page 84 of Montana Lawman Rescuer
“Why would I want to do that? Why should I?”
She tipped her head to one side and considered him. “Because until you do, you carry her label with you. It’s an unnecessary burden.”
“I cannot forgive her for the choices she made and how they affected me. A fallen woman should be punished.”
She blinked as if having to force herself to meet his gaze. “I expect she was.” Seeing his stubborn disbelief, she continued. “She would be shunned by so-called decent company. She had to leave her son behind in order to give him a decent life.”
“You want me to believe she left me for my own good?”
“It’s a possibility.”
He wanted to refute it. But he couldn’t disagree with her when she held his hand and looked at him so intently.
Her gentle smile was his undoing, and he pulled her into his arms.
“Think about it,” she said.
He promised he would, though he couldn’t see what difference it would make. He’d learned to live with his past.
Maybe she could learn to live without a past.
“Would you be able to forgive me if I turn out to be a fallen woman?”
Her question threw back the dark curtain he’d pulled into place when he saw her kissing that man in plain view. He had to answer honestly. “I don’t know.”
“Fair enough.” She slipped into the house, and when he finally forced himself to move and stepped inside, she was gone. He could hear her moving about upstairs.
Was this what she had feared since her arrival?
Why hadn’t he guarded his heart more carefully?
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The next day was Sunday, and Emily jumped from bed. Jesse was home. Of course, that was not the reason for this bubble of joy inside her heart. Well, maybe in part. She’d again realized how his feelings about his mother had shaped him into the man he was—strong, unbending.
Knowing he saw the world in black and white stopped her eager morning preparations. If her past contained something—anything—unpleasant, she would be seen as black. Jesse had made that clear. There would be no welcome for her here.
She shivered. Something about Fred Ellesworth unsettled her. Had she really known such an unsavory man in the past? It didn’t speak well for the kind of woman she’d been. She tried to dismiss the thought, but it weighed heavily on her mind as she finished dressing and made her way downstairs.
Mikey and Gram were in the kitchen. Emily had heard Jesse go down the stairs, but he wasn’t in the room.
Gram answered her puzzled look. “Jesse went to check on things at the jail. He said he’d be back for breakfast.”
Emily’s steps were measured as she set the table. Was he avoiding her? Seeing her as an echo of his mother?
When Jesse stepped through the door, a smile widened her mouth and then fled as she tried to gauge his feelings. Their gazes connected. He smiled, and her insides warmed. If only her life could begin right here. For a moment, she considered forgetting any effort to discover who she was.
But then Jesse’s smile disappeared, and he turned away, but not before she caught the doubt and uncertainty in her eyes.
She helped serve the meal, her joy quenched by the dreadful possibilities of what she might have been.
Soon afterward, they left for church. “It’s good to be free of the threat of those men,” she said. The fear of being recognized by them and in danger was gone. She could go anywhere she wanted now.
So many people greeted them and thanked Jesse for capturing the bad guys that it took longer than usual to get inside the church. When they did, Emily slipped in beside Gram with Mikey between herself and Jesse. She released a satisfied breath. Her peace was short-lived as Fred Ellesworth sat in a pew across the aisle. He looked her way, his gaze demanding before it slipped to Jesse at her side and then rested on Mikey. Something about the way he studied the boy made her grip Mikey’s hand.
Hugh approached the pulpit and announced the opening hymn, and Emily ignored the man across the aisle. He meant nothing to her despite his claims.
Ignoring him proved more difficult than she anticipated, as at the end of the service, he waited for her to step into the aisle and then followed her. He leaned close to speak softly. “Your sheriff might be interested in knowing more about you.”
